There have been a lot of wouldbe contenders for the top-of-theheap position which the 'Rangie' has maintained ever since: the BMW X5, the Lexus RX series, Toyota's Land Cruiser Amazon.

Even, if you will, VW's Touareg and Porsche's Cayenne.

And now we have the Q7 from the performance/prestige arm of the Volkswagen group, launched last year. Before it even went into production it had recordbreaking advance bookings. It is no secret that it shares many underpinnings with the Touareg and Cayenne but with a much more in-your-face style.

Arrogant, anyone? It's big, too, longer than a Mercedes S-Class.

Audi's renowned quattro AWD system was the starting point for this one. Developed initially for rally cars some 25 years ago, it has since then defined the drive and handling of all of Audi's highspec cars.

They took that technology on a large-car platform and then built an SUV shape with that bold front and a semi-coupe look to the rear. The review car had the S-Line sport package, which includes special styled wheels and a lowered suspension. The roof rails were additional too and also emphasised the Q7's size.

Inside, all is luxury and tech.

The main two rows of seats were sumptuous, leather and sportsprofiled as an extra in the review car. The rearmost pair, though well made, were rather cramped for real people.

Audi steering wheels always feel good and correctly proportioned, and in the case of this car featured the multifunction version with remote controls for a number of needs.

I like the dashboard and instrumentation too . . . clear dials, in attractive curvy triangular housings. In the centre, the secondary information screen has some of the best graphics around.

At the back of the gearshift is the control knob that is Audi's version of BMW's i-Drive. They call it the multimedia interface or MMI. I still don't like any of them.

The rear luggage space with the back pair of seats folded is enormous. Even a tall man has to stretch to reach the stowed seats to unlock and deploy them. With those seats up, there's still great boot capacity. Put down both rear rows and you have a really long space, fully flat and deep carpeted.

The review car had the familiar VW Group 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine, with 233hp growling under the bonnet, and the accompanying 500Nm of torque offered surging but smooth performance when requested.

Given the size and weight of the car, average fuel consumption of around 10L/100km is quite respectable.

The gearbox is a six-speed Tiptronic with very smooth shifts and quick responses when used in manual mode. The car has offroad capability and there's an optional self-levelling suspension that doubles up by providing extra ground clearance if required.

I suspect, though, that this is a car designed mainly for the tarmac and that anything approaching extreme mucky conditions would leave it wallowing somewhat.

As I write, I have a Range Rover V8 diesel outside the door and I know just where that one could take me . . . and get me back from.

Q7 starts at around 74,000 here and you can load it a lot more if you feel the need. The car we tested had the guts of 17,000 in extras. They included an electric opening/closing tailgate. Like electrically operated seats and sliding doors, such fripperies annoy me.

They're usually too slow in operation for comfort.

But when you get to this level of car buying, they're essential conversation pieces.

VITAL STATISTICS
Model Engine Length Width Height Wheelbase Acceleration Top speed Transmission Economy Price C0 2emissions

Audi Q7 3.0 V6 TDI 233bhp 5,085mm 1,984mm 1,697 3,002 0-100 km/h - 9.1secs 216km/h six-speed tiptronic 8.3-14.6 l/100km From 72,400 282g/km